Let's talk

The Benefits of Workforce Diversity and Empowerment

2012-06-23T17:56:00.000-07:00

Businesses now face an increasingly complex and uncertain environment which has generated a demand for the development of more flexible forms of organizations, the strengthening of corporate culture and the determination to make continuous improvements in the quality of products and services. Development and progress cannot occur in a vacuum. It needs the rich soil of multiple experiences in order to flourish - an intuitive personality combined with an analytical personality or marketing abilities with technical abilities that can provide better results in terms of solutions; in as much as multiple cultural perspectives can provide innovation and new perspectives. We have reached a situation today where the value of a company is measured by its intellectual strength, and its ability to initiate and innovate. Thus for an organization to function smooth, effective interaction among diverse employees is most paramount and businesses must be concerned with and address issues related to diversity and empowerment of their workforce. The recent interests in the development and application of the principles of employee empowerment may well be traced to the growing opinion of many managers that companies have reached their ultimate limits of Taylorism1. The key method of improving productivity and of meeting the challenges of the new environment seems to be the empowerment of employees by allowing them to express their personal interest, autonomy, free will and desire. Diversity in recent times has become a pivotal component of major organizations. As companies move towards flatter organizational structures and with the increasing movement of labour across boundaries precipitated by moves towards a global economy, it should not be surprising that diversity is now a dominant organizational issue. To develop this flexible response to the new environmental challenges, managers must forfeit their long-cherished, and at times, abusive privileges and move towards a new form of organization where the employee is seen as an active and willing participant in the organization. By doing so, businesses will increasingly see the need to switch focus to becoming people centred. This should be characterized by the shift from a command-and-control approach to a facilitate-and-empower – a trend towards an information-based organization which relies upon teams and task forces to tackle problems and exploit opportunities together with greater self-discipline and individual responsibility for managing relationships and communications. This, viewed from the benefits accrued to the organization due to the variety in the attributes of its workforce. The future of how companies thrive will not only be influenced by their policies of inclusion but truly, by an internal shift to accepting diversity in all its aspects as a competitive advantage and a contributor and source of innovation, ideas and potential based on empowerment. Much of the diversity literature contends that workforce diversity is not a “fad" but an important strategic issue that must be addressed. The management of diversity therefore, is a primary challenge in today’s business world. Accordingly, workforce diversity researchers are unanimous in the view that to be competitive in the future, business organizations must accept the reality of individual differences in the workforce. In this vein, theorists have developed a variety of approaches and tactics for handling diversity issues. Banach (1990) for instance, discussed the need for organizations to train their workforce in diversity issues. Others like William (1990) theorized that the importance of managing workforce diversity is such that organizations would have to reengineer their personnel policies, and compensation and benefit systems, to be compatible with growing workforce diversity in such organizations. Lately, Benibo (1997) made a theoretical contribution by developing a conceptual framework to explain the relationship between diversity and technological development and proliferation. Despite the theoretical contributions highlighted, there have only been a few empirical investigation of workforce diversity in organizations. This is especially true in small and medium organizations where social shifts and the small population have made workforce diversity a practical issue in the exploitation of its vast financial resources. One important conclusion deductible from workforce diversity literature is its importance to modern organizations. It is true that workforce diversity has both advantages and disadvantages in the organization. The relative importance of the pros and cons of diversity however, is contingent upon the characteristics of the firm in question. Nevertheless, mismanaged diversity can have negative impacts on employee job satisfaction and productivity. Mismanaged diversity, such as unfavorable treatment of some employees, have the potential of repressing employee's abilities and motivation, consequently leading to diminished job attainment. The importance of workforce diversity is encapsulated from various dimensions. Proponents of workforce diversity are of the opinion that it enlarges the scope of viewpoints and ideas, and where properly utilized can enrich the quality of decision making in the firm. In addition, employing workers from a diverse range of sources gives the organization the potential to obtain highly skilled employees. Furthermore, more and more businesses are increasing the scope of their operations going far beyond their geographical locations. It is postulated that enterprises that internationalize their operations will have a higher chance of succeeding if they have diversified workforce. Despite the apparent advantages of workforce diversification it also poses a few predicaments. Recruiting, training and managing a diverse workforce is by no means an easy task. Integrating workers with different religious, cultural, social and political background is time consuming, costly, and leads to a conflict which in general leads to poor organizational performance. Milliken and Martin (1996) found that workforce diversity leads to higher turnover rate, especially among those employees who are different from the majority. However, despite these predicaments it is visible from the literature that the benefits of workforce diversity far outweigh its costs. Today, the case of empowerment comes from business needs that are central to the success of a company: fast response to customers, strong cross-functional links at multiple levels, and the need to take opportunities that are too local, too fleeting or too many in numbers to permit a centralized decision-making process. However in order for empowerment to take root and thrive, organizations must encourage participation, innovation, access to information, and accountability. These conditions are insufficient without the right kind of leadership however. When an organization's overall direction is clear and its overall structure and resource base are adequate to its needs then an empowered workforce with responsibility and authority for most day-to-day decision can have the following advantages: (a) better customer service: not only will employees in contact with customers be able to make decisions themselves and provide an appropriate response, they will also give the customer the (correct) impression that the customer is dealing with someone who has power and influence in the organization. (b) flexibility: empowered employees are ready to respond to changes and opportunities as they arise. (c) speed: when employees know responsibility for outcomes rests with them, they can take action swiftly and locally to solve problems. (d) formation of important cross-functional links: without having to raise most operational issues up the hierarchy, employees are free to make the horizontal connections appropriate to their business. Cross-functional teams can form and re-form as necessary without the say-so of top management. Because these links are not officially resources, they will tend to be efficient. Benefits come not from being on the teams itself but from what the team contributes to the employee's regular work. If a link ceases to add value, the participants will drop it. (e) morale: many employees will feel better about their work if they know that they have more control over it. Individuals' high morale, if widely shared, can also give an organization a positive quality that is often visible to outsiders, such as customers, and is reciprocated by them, resulting in a feedback loop of increasing positive feeling. (f) compensation for limited career paths: many employees in organizations now face the prospect of limited advancement, given recent demographic trends and the tendency toward flatter hierarchies. If promotion is unavailable, companies need to find other ways of increasing employees' responsibilities and rewards. One way in which this might be achieved is to broaden their responsibility and authority. Empowered employees may find their jobs challenging and rewarding enough that promotion ceases to be their only criterion for remaining loyal to the organization. (g) mistake encouraged: empowered employees' mistakes are considered as opportunities for coaching and guidance rather than opportunities to punish. The crucial indicators in an empowered workforce are the way employees interact with customers, managers and each other. Typical behaviours among employees that are evident within empowered workforce include: (i) showing an awareness of the goals and strategies of the organization and take an interest beyond their functional specialty, paying attention to company publications, press reports, and financial and competitive data. This, while discussing their work in terms of how it fits into the company's overall mission; (ii). taking personal responsibility for the outcomes of their work, showing by their behaviour that they feel responsible for the results of what they do; (iii) continuously monitoring their own performance, looking for indications of quality and showing a concern for how they are doing on all performance dimensions; making corrections and improvements in their performance without being asked to do so; and (iv) seeking additional resources, when those provided are limited, in order to perform well while assisting others to improve their performance. The same local action that can lead to increased customer service can also lead to conflicting messages being given to customers and across departments. One employee may be willing to go further than the next in taking care of a particular need, leaving customers with different levels of service. Departments may evolve different policies on everything from office hours to the choice of computers. Sometimes these conflicts will have to be resolved by statements of company policy. However, the more often this happens, the more the distribution of authority is under-cut. It is evident that this can transcend into a bureaucratic concept that leads to misconceptions and potential for chaos that include: (a) lack of clarity: the flexibility and speed that result from distributed decision making are likely to lead to a lack of clarity about who is responsible for what. Job definitions become less useful and people often find themselves under more pressure because there are fewer limits to their responsibilities. A need for "more breathing room" is a common complaint of employees in empowered organizations; (b) breakdown of hierarchical control: the emergence of more cross-functional links often signals the breakdown of the formal hierarchy for the carrying out of many decisions. Control ends up being shared not only across hierarchical levels but across functional boundaries as well. Cross-functional teams may do an excellent job of problem-solving (although this is by no means assured) but managers with ultimate responsibility for functional units are likely to feel a real loss of control, which they may reject as too risky; and (c) demoralization: although empowerment seems attractive to many people, not every employee wants the responsibility that comes with it. Managers have a habit of assuming everyone is like them - desirous of more power and the concomitant rewards. This is only true of some people; others would prefer not to be burdened with additional authority and the decisions that come with it. These people may become seriously demoralized if they are forced to take a more active role in the management of their organization. The new concept of empowerment brings more human aspects into picture, which follows what is called the "democratic Taylorism" model. According to Northcraft and Neale 1993, instead of Taylorism, these new methods and standards are determined by work teams themselves: workers are taught how to time their own jobs with a stop-watch; compare alternative procedures to determine the most efficient one; document the standard procedure to ensure that everyone can understand and implement it; and identify and propose improvements in that procedure. The nature and needs of the business and the personal characteristics of the owners generally influence workforce diversity. The nature of an organization, in terms of its practices, procedures and the goodwill of management characterizes the employee’s perception of what it is like to work in that organization. Based on this perception employees decide whether to expend their efforts and energies for the organization or not. The “practices” of an organization can advance or diminish the effectiveness of a diverse work force. Iverson (2000), in her study of workforce diversity in the hospitality industry, found that organizational practices that provide employees ample opportunities to develop their skills, where managers appreciate differences between workers, and recognize and respect them equally, generate a climate where diversity is highly valued. The merits of bureaucratic structure and hierarchical control have been challenged, in new management thinking. The traditional structures are criticized for their cost, lack of responsiveness and deadening effect upon employee initiative and productivity. To make our hierarchies function properly, it is essential to place the emphasis on accountability for getting work done. Authority is a secondary issue and flows from accountability in the sense that there should be just that amount of authority needed to discharge the accountability. Most significantly, traditional practices are seen to constrain the speed and quality of responsiveness to changing conditions. Consequently, there has emerged the new idea of a management based on a leaner, more creative organization which depends upon the commitment of all staff to shared values to generate an adaptive form of organization. Command is replaced by consent, as the key to corporate success is the development of employees capable of responding, with the minimum of managerial direction, to emergent opportunities and threats. The underpinning argument is that today we constantly talk about downsizing, de-layering, rightsizing, re-engineering and flattening business processes as a cost saving measure, but with our existing hierarchical and bureaucratic system, are we really achieving our cost saving targets? What are your views on Minister Ronald Thwaite's position on auxiliary fees charged by the nation’s high schools?

Social Reconstructivism – The implications and philosophy for education in Jamaica

2011-07-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

Social reconstructivism emphasizes education for social transformation and reflects a theory of human development that situates the individual within a socio-cultural context. Individual development derives from social interactions within which cultural meanings are shared by the group and eventually internalized by individual. According to Richardson 1997, individuals construct knowledge in transaction with the environment, and in the process both the individual and the environment are changed. The subject of study is dialectical relationship between the individual and the social and cultural environment. Schools are the socio-cultural settings where teaching and learning take place and where cultural tools, such as reading, writing, mathematics, and certain modes of discourse are utilized. This approach stated Martin 1994; and O’Loughlin, 1995, assumes that theory and practice do not develop in a vacuum; they are shaped by dominant cultural assumptions. Formal knowledge, which is the subject of instruction, and the manner of its presentation are influenced by the historical and cultural environment that generated them. Myers, 1996 maintains that to accomplish the goals of social transformation and reconstruction, the context of education must be deconstructed, and the cultural assumptions, power relationships, and historical influences that tightened it must be exposed, critiqued, and, when necessary, altered.
While it may inform and influence practice, constructivism is a theory of learning, not a theory of teaching; and translating theory to practice is both difficult and imprecise. Programs influenced by social Reconstructionist tradition attempt to help teacher education students deconstruct their own prior knowledge and attitudes, comprehend how these understandings evolved, explore the effects they have on actions and behaviour, and consider alternate conceptions and premise that may be more serviceable in teaching. Critical analysis and structured reflection on formal course knowledge and everyday practical experience are incorporated. Richardson, 1997 identified two factors that appear to affect the approach teachers and teacher educators take in forming constructivist settings – (a) extent to which the social is acknowledged as a critical factor in learning and individual cognitive development and (b) the specific content, subject matter, or discipline.
The overarching challenge constructivism presents to teachers and teacher educators is the formidable task of translating a learning theory into a theory of teaching, which in turn raises questions about what teachers need to know and be able to do. For teacher educators, among other tasks, this involves balancing the need to acknowledge the different discipline – specific requirements of teaching with the need to model constructivist methods in teacher education courses. Richardson (1997) also notes the limits of a perspective on teaching that values students’ understandings at the expense of “right” answers. Students’ knowledge becomes idiosyncratic; as different students may arrive at different understandings or interpretations of a concept, all of which are not equally appropriate.
Several authors cite the importance of teacher educators’ modelling constructivist approaches that engage students in interdisciplinary exploration, collaborative activity, and field-based opportunities for experiential learning, reflection, and self-examination. To derive culturally relevant and socially just pedagogy and practice from constructivist epistemologies, Martin (1994) and Vadeboncoeur (1997) urge teacher educators to deconstruct and scrutinize cultural assumptions that underlie various interpretations of constructivism to expose how social beliefs have influenced the development of theory and practices. Without such scrutiny, societal inequities and historical forms of oppression may be perpetuated in supposedly constructivist classrooms, and the very constraints on individual development constructivists seek to remove or ameliorate will be reinforced.
The social cognition learning model asserts that culture is the prime determinant of individual development. Humans are the only species to have created culture, and every human child develops in the context of a culture. Therefore, a child’s learning development is affected in ways large and small by the culture - including the culture of family environment - in which he or she is enmeshed. The implication of this belief for education in Jamaica is farfetched as our authoritarian system of learning does not facilitate an environment in which students are actively involved in their development. Our current education system dates back to the Industrial Revolution. At the time, our country needed to prepare its agricultural workers for factory jobs. So we built a school system that catered to the mass production mentality. This education system was efficient and measurable, and it churned out students who were ready to face the demands of our nation’s new economy.
In today’s age of instant information, the Industrial Revolution is a distant memory. So why is it that we still educate our students as if preparing them for a life of machine and assembly line work? Teaching by note and following rigid academic agendas does not cut it anymore. Today’s children need to learn the skills that will help them in today’s job market and today’s society.
Culture makes two sorts of contributions to a child’s intellectual development. Firstly, through culture children acquire much of the content of their thinking, that is, their knowledge; and secondly, the environment which provides a child the processes or means of their thinking, which according to Vygotsky is the tools of intellectual adaptation. Cognitive development results from a dialectical process whereby a child learns through problem-solving experiences shared with someone else, usually a parent or teacher but sometimes a sibling or peer. Marxist theory, states that the essence of man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations. Vygotsky would agree that we develop as humans through the ways we interact with those around us. His view of human nature fits with Marxist ideology. Human beings can only be understood within the context the time period and the part of the world in which they live. Human nature cannot be understood as never-changing and universal, but as always depending on its specific social and historical formation.

Through the eyes of an educator: An understanding of the perspectives on education and training by a senior teacher in Jamaica.

2011-04-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

Some of the issues regularly presented when discussing an individual’s perspective on education and training are learning challenges which typically include mental challenges, limited teaching materials and insufficient classroom infrastructure. However, one significant area that must be considered when assessing student learning is the issue of overcrowding in schools and by extension the classroom stated Mrs. Judith Hewitt a Guidance Counselor and senior educator at a technical high school in Westmoreland. Mrs. Hewitt defines learning as a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience. However, this learning experience she lamented may be impaired when overcrowding produce effects such as: regular class disruptions, lack of individual attention for students and poor academic achievement. Mrs. Hewitt stated that for many teachers overcrowding affects their ability to execute teaching strategies effectively and diagnose and address learning disorders improperly.
Teachers she stated find it difficult to impart knowledge and maintain effective class control. It is believed noted Mrs. Hewitt that the teacher is the driving force of the classroom and resources are identified through him/her. However, there is a measure of inconsistency in the technical skills level and expertise of some employees at educational institutions that contributes to the problem of overcrowding and its impact on the learning process. The quality of input versus output she stated is fairly satisfactory given the constraints, but there is clearly room for improvement. The contribution of institutional output is presently being rated between 64% and 71% based on the analysis where the utilization of human and technical resources is not monitored through the institution’s information system she concurred.
Mrs. Hewitt stated that the human resource is the most important element in the learning institution. The schools non-commitment to on-going institutional, curriculum and instructional development she says affords for an ineffective teaching/learning process that lack productivity awareness and skills. The educator believes the pride which students take in their work is a necessary prerequisite for success in satisfying their craving for a career on a sustainable basis. However, she stated that from a survey conducted at her school, students feel that they are not empowered and are not given recognition for productivity improvements. The students she says feel that they have the authority to make sound decisions, however, the school’s administration is beyond all doubt not properly oriented to coach them in dealing with the issues of overcrowding and how it impact on their educational advancement. Feedback from teachers advised Mrs. Hewitt, reveals that they believe the school’s administration is reluctant to listen to their problems and concerns and feels opportunities exist to make their school more effective. It is for this reason she remarked, why there is a high level of staff turnover in institutions of learning that does not practice job rotation and cross training to build confidence.
According to Mrs. Hewitt, many of the students who are faced with overwhelming issues may feel despondent or exploited and their behavior tends to be hostile or apathetic. This could imply that teachers do not try to find out if this lack of discipline has an underlying problem. However, she stated that having a good relationship in the classroom may be one reason why the students are not bothered by the situation. Good relationships in the classroom she stresses, build positive self image; and students with positive self image tend to be superior in achievement and always aspire to be self actualized. Mrs. Hewitt also mentioned that the unstable environment in which schools now operate has caused teachers to wonder if it really makes sense staying with an institution that is not proactive in its approach for growth. High incidents of shirking she stated causes loss of productive manpower and productive time and the wheels of change moves slowly. However, Mrs. Hewitt believes that immediate change to work procedures can only happen if the school is in charge of the process.
The education system she says promotes participative learning as is evident by the Ministry’s motto ‘every child can learn, every child must learn’. “The reality is that the situation of overcrowding does not augur well for total development of the students”, cited Mrs. Hewitt. Overcrowding for the student causes stress, inattention, and exhaustion that lead to indiscipline where the child becomes ill-tempered and despondent. Mrs. Hewitt cited that every school has to face the realities of the effect of the performance of their students and the impact it has on the institution; however, when students’ morale and sense of belonging is reduced, there are more concerns about getting ahead. Schools, chuckled Mrs. Hewitt, currently operate in a hostile environment and should make every effort to ensure their operations are efficient and effective. The obvious strength in the institution’s policies and objectives she contends, can impact greatly on its human resources where teachers are motivated and properly guided through continuous empowerment and total quality management principles designed to make the institution more productive. Any change in the objectives of the institution, and the use of quality improvement tools will lead to the revitalization of the institution.
Mrs. Hewitt asserts that a fundamental transformation of educational institutions will lead to students becoming more efficient; and the school needs to take a more aggressive stand as it relates to improving educational standards, adapting to a universal minimum student teacher ratio, restructuring the current regulatory and academic framework, and increasing the value of knowledge imparted to students – thereby creating goodwill. Mrs. Hewitt stated that in preparing for the future schools need to look at long term structural transformation in order to meet the challenges and commitments to students. She noted that education generally opens students’ views to understand and appreciate issues from a wider perspective – it introduces new ideas, new insights and new approaches that facilitate better career outlook and more effective decision making abilities.
The more the level of educational attainment the more potential the student has as a source for competitive advantage stressed Mrs. Hewitt. Accordingly, creating an environment of diversity can be of immense benefits to educational institutions. To reap this benefit however, institutions stated Mrs. Hewitt, must improve upon their teaching standards, and enhance the classroom and school environment to invite an atmosphere of creative tension as is a practiced phenomenon in educational institutions. She cautioned, however, that a proactive approach to stemming the impact that overcrowding has on the development of the students and the burden it causes for the teachers bust be instituted. She recommends that a forecast of enrollment be considered for all educational institutions and the school administration adheres to the forecast. Schools she says should be placed on a shift basis that will allow for better student/teacher ratio which will improve technical skills level and reduce the slope of the learning curve.

The Assumption of the Role of Education in Jamaica

2010-06-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Classrooms in Jamaica are overwhelmingly authoritarian and undemocratic. They focus on fragmented knowledge that is disconnected from the students’ lives. Proven reforms are resisted at all levels and systematic progressive change is non-existent after many decades. Why is this so? The standard liberal outlook is that schools are ‘neglected’, but they have the potential, with reform, to be a major progressive force in society. This document questions these assumptions through a review of the educational framework on the assumption of the role of education in Jamaica. The major claim to our perspective is that our educational system’s primary role is to mirror, support, stabilize, and reproduce the fundamentally hierarchical structures that existin society.

The current state of our educational system is far from ideal. Nearly half a century after the reform of the education system, an overwhelming majority of classrooms are based on the realist model: learning is authority-based and focused on fragmented, rote knowledge. We wonder why proven reform ideas are systematically resisted or nearly impossible to implement on a large scale. Implicit in this wondering is the assumption that our classrooms are the way they are because our educational system is ‘neglected’. The state of our classrooms is an unwanted or accidental result of a lack of resources, personnel, and coherent ideas for reform. However, underlying these beliefs are even deeper assumptions about the role of education in our society: that education is inherently progressive and in alignment with our own educational goals. This assumption is so fundamental to the accepted paradigm that few have investigated to see if it is actually true.

In a recently concluded document by the Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning; The National Report of Jamaica on the development and state of the art of adult learning and education, Jamaica still continues its efforts to reduce the illiteracy rate; even though it has a three-tiered education system that should enable students to grow and develop. This document introduces you to a seminal work in the study of educational institutions; a Report which was prepared on behalf of the Ministry of Education by the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL) in April 2008. The work of the Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning has had a dramatic influence on the educational community, and inspired a wide range of research, so much so that it guided a committee that included members of JFLL, The Ministry of Education, The University of the West Indies, the Jamaican Council for Adult Education, and the Planning Institute of Jamaica using extensive statistical and historical evidence that begs to question the fundamental ‘hidden assumptions’ of the liberal educational paradigm.

Only a limited number of us are open about our goals for educational reform. Many of us would like to see vast improvements in all areas, still there are others whom are of the opinion that making one subject area or class better means improving classroom environments and curricula; and some would like to encourage rational or scientific thinking or national literacy. Other goals include independent thinking, personal development, and social and economic equality. Behind these goals lie hidden assumptions about the role of education in our society.

Unlike perrenialists who argue that human nature is the same in every time and place, progressivists contends that humans exist in a changing universe. Hence, knowledge should not be seen as static, but dynamic and changing. Students should therefore, through the curriculum, develop skills to construct knowledge for themselves based on past experiences. One of the earliest advocates of this school of thought was John Dewey who argued that education must be viewed as a process of growth that involves reconstructing experiences of knowledge through successive interaction with the social environment.

From the history of progressive education three major roles can be assumed. These are: Integrative Function; Egalitarian Function and Developmental Function.
(a)Integrative Function prepares children for their roles as adults in society; provide them with the skills necessary to survive and work, and to socialize them so that they can work within the standardized norms and social relationships.
(b)Egalitarian Function provide every child with an equal opportunity to excel, so that those who do will be able to use their education to their advantage. Those in lower social positions will be able to improve their lives, and education may mitigate the inequality between rich and poor.
(c)Developmental Function provides opportunities for every child to explore their potential and interests, to help them develop into a fully independent and realized individual.

Given the state of our educational system, and the growing inequality in our society, it seems likely that there is a tension between the three roles of education, with the integrative role dominating the other two. Why do we not question the compatibility of these roles? The major claim of schooling in Jamaica is that the primary role of education in Jamaican society involves a correspondence between the fundamental social relationships that exists in the schools and workplaces. Our schools are fundamentally oppressive and authoritarian not because they are neglected, but because they are successfully playing their primary role in society. Thus, the educational system is part of how our society evolves.

What is competition and how does competition help firms to operate at their optimum level?

2010-06-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

The term competition refers to two or more organizations or firms competing in the same marketplace for the same consumer dollar. Competition varies from that of being monopolistic, oligopolistic to that of being perfect or pure. The competitiveness of firms is severely undermined by the high cost of debt service and working capital. These costs affect the total budgetary outlay displacing expenditure in critical areas of infrastructure and human resource development. This has negative consequences for investment and growth in both the short term and long term. Sluggishness in economic activity results in slow revenue growth, further limiting the firm’s ability to provide basic goods and services to effectively compete in the marketplace. The firm’s economic strategies therefore will always be geared toward encouraging investment, increasing output, creating jobs, improving productivity and achieving international competitiveness.

Firms compete constantly on the basis of price, quality of goods and service, demand for goods and service and the supply of goods and services.

To distinguish who is competing with whom in the marketplace it is necessary to distinguish between the behaviour of individual firms, and the type of market in which the firm operates. This degree of competitive behaviour conjures on the degree to which individual firms indulge in active competition with one another. For a firm to garner competitive market structure it has to be the dominant player in the market, and pushes the other players to accept the forces of market demand and supply. In this regard the firm is assumed to be a price-taker, which is referred to as perfect competition.

Why do Christians still have Problems?

2010-06-13T19:46:00.000-07:00

As children of a loving, caring, heavenly father, why are we – Christians – still faced with trying to cope with the problems of the world? We all have problems! That’s life; but we also have a Lord who not only helps us grow through our problems, but also gives us the power to triumph over them. God allows us Christians to face difficulties in life not as punishment, but to strengthen our faith and trust in him. God does not only have a redemptive purpose for problems; he also gives us a specific promise in the Bible for every problem.
This book, the Bible, is a compilation of these problems that so many people have in common, and of the amazing promise of God to deal with these problems. We are spiritually purified not primarily by the dark night of our soul, but by experiencing how much God loves us when we face failure and limitations. The Bible represents human nature as hostile to God (Ezek. 16:46 – 52 NEB), which is primarily why we fail. It predicts a future full of problems. It teaches that the road to heaven is narrow, but the road to hell is wide. Scriptures were clearly not written for those who want simple answers or an easy optimistic view of religion and nature. Scripture is the source and aim of education (White 13).
Education is more than just to pursue a certain course of study. It means that there has to be preparation of the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the development of the body, mind, and soul that the divine purpose in God’s creation may be realized (White 16). The source of education comes from God. In Genesis 3:8 we read and understood that God came to relate to his people in the cool of the day (TLB). This is where He imparts a higher education to us because he has wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and strength. Our minds, hence, are brought into communion with Him and for us to understand Him we need to consider his purpose for creating us.
The majority of problems surface where there is no belief. The Bible is painfully honest. It shows Jacob, the father of its ‘chosen people’, to be a deceiver. It describes Moses the lawgiver as an insecure, reluctant leader, who on his first attempt to come to the aid of his own people, killed a man and then ran for his life to the desert. It portrays David not only as Israel’s most loved king, general, and spiritual leader, but as one who took another man’s wife and then to cover his own sin conspired to have her husband killed.
There is no system of offers of assurance, forgiveness, eternal life, and acceptance into a family; but the offer Christ gave does not depend on what we have done for him, but on our admission of sin and acceptance of what he has done for us. God created the entire universe for his own pleasure (Col. 1:15 – 19, Gen. 1:1 &2:3 NEB). He created us – man for a special reason, in his very image- immortal like unto Him, with a soul which has a mind, emotion and will – the power to think, feel and decide. God created us for three distinct reasons:
to rule over the earth (Gen. 1:26 – 30)
to obey him (Gen. 2:16 – 7)
to fellowship with him (Gen. 3: 8 – 9). (NEB)
It is because of our lack of regard for God why we have lost our godlike qualities and state of innocence. Life now becomes hard and painful (Gen. 3: 16 – 9 NEB), but God has a strategy to overcome every obstacle. We therefore need a change of view, a change of mind, a change of attitude and desires, and a change of purpose. We need to be regenerated; we need a new birth, a new desire, and the receiving of God’s nature.